De Lima tells solon:  National martial law? Don’t play with people’s lives

MANILA — Don’t play with people’s lives.

This was the reaction on Sunday of detained Sen. Leila de Lima to Kusug-Tausug Partylist Rep. Shernee Abubakar Tan’s proposal that the martial law proclamation be imposed nationwide, not only in Mindanao.

Tan voted for the extension of martial law in Mindanao during the joint session of Congress last Saturday.  Congress granted President Duterte’s wish for martial law to be extended until Dec.31.

In a statement, De Lima said she found the proposal of Tan to be “disturbing” as she asked if the latter meant it to be a joke or to “earn cheap laughter from those inclined to laugh at the situation?”

“If so, what an offensively bad and sick joke it was,” she said, as she also said if the proposal was meant to earn brownie points from the Palace, then “what a deplorably blatant and shameless way to feather one’s own interest.”

De Lima said maybe Tan, being so young and without any idea or empathy for those who suffered during the martial law years of Ferdinand Marcos, found the idea “thrilling.”

“Real people’s lives and well-being are on the balance. Don’t play games with people’s lives. Don’t play with the power of declaring and extending martial law. It is a fire that will burn as all if recklessly handled by those supposedly elected to protect us from abuse,” De Lima also said.  SFM